COMPANHIA GERAL DE PERNAMBUCO E PARAIBA.
Instituição da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco, e Paraíba.
Preceded by editions in 1759 and 1776. This edition was the first to have been published following Maria I of Portugal’s dissolution of the trade monopoly held by the Companhia Geral de Comércio de Pernambuco e Paraíba, which lasted from its founding in 1756 until the 1780s. Established by the Marquês de Pombal, the company was designed to address the labour defecit in Brazil by increasing and taking a monopoly control of the South Atlantic slave trade between Brazil and Africa. As tobacco was the currency of exchange with Africa, and was grown within the Brazilian colony, the Companhia prevented foreign brokers siphoning off profits whilst enlarging this market. This slave labour was then used in the sugar industries, for the European market. Subscription for the Companhia was raised publicly, with residents of Pernambuco and Paraíba of all economic stations encouraged to invest.
WorldCat locates four copies; at the University of Toronto (two copies), Tulane University and the British Library. There is also a copy in Bib. Brasiliana Mindlin, São Paulo.
Not in Palau; Moraes, R.B. de. Bibliographia brasiliana (1983 edition), pp.419.; cf. Rodrigues, J.C. Bibliotheca brasiliense, 698 & 1275 for 1759 and 1776 editions.
